Dad Goes To Download

As part of my ongoing quest to avoid becoming middle aged, me, my moustache and fellow dad Ben rocked up to heavy metal-fest Download in Castle Donington last Friday to re-live our youth and jump around like loons to the one and only Faith No More.

There’s something about going to a festival that immediately makes a 30-something dad feel old … couple that with the fact that we’re going to see a band in their 40s who have recently re-formed and we seemed destined to stick out like the proverbial sore thumb.

However, after a couple of hours we were “running tings” as one nice young lady told us .. I can’t repeat what some of the other ladies said. I’m not sure if the various random friends we made gravitated towards us for fatherly wisdom or because they couldn’t quite believe I was wearing a moustache (and a retro Pearl Jam t-shirt). Either way, I think we taught the youngsters a thing or two that day about how to get served quickly at a bar, pace your drinking throughout the day and stand your ground in a crowd.

Yes it took us the best part of two days to recover, yes we paid £80 for a taxi home rather than risk getting dirty in the campsite and yes we probably did say “the youth of today”. But we’re dads, we’re proud and we rocked it.

D.